The Doing Business 2017 report released on Tuesday showed that India was placed 130th among 190 countries that had been surveyed for the annual rankings, with Russia, Bhutan, South Africa, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Brazil ranking higher. New Zealand replaced Singapore as the easiest place for doing business.

While the Centre's focus on improving India's ranking and overhauling the Companies Act was lauded in the report, labour laws were flagged for creating economic distortions even as IFC took note of the plan to overhaul the regime. India's overall score improved marginally to 55.27.

Improving India's ranking in the ease of doing business survey has been identified as a key priority by the Modi government.